THE MORTAL STORM
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE of NEW 35mm RESTORATION
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Q&A with Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty, Author Hollywood & Hitler
Starring the incomparable team of Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart and released in June 1940 before America’s official entry into World War II, The Mortal Storm was MGM’s first anti-Nazi film, and one of only two films made in Hollywood during the war that explicitly identifies Jews as victims of Nazism—the other film, None Shall Escape, was shown at last year’s NCJF festival. The Nazis’ rise to power splits a family apart in this melodrama set in Germany in 1933. A Jewish professor (Frank Morgan) refuses to conform his teaching to Nazi doctrine and pays the price. His daughter Freya (Sullavan) leaves her fiancée (Robert Young), who is becoming a dedicated Fascist, for her childhood friend Martin (Stewart), a defiant anti-Nazi, with whom she attempts escape. Directed by two-time Best Director Oscar-winning director Frank Borzage and written by two refugees from Nazi Germany, George Froeschel (a Jewish former newspaper editor) and Paul Hans Rameau (a well-known scriptwriter, persecuted for being gay). 35mm restored print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Dir: Frank Borzage | USA | 1940 | 100m | English
CO-PRESENTED BY: Brandeis University Alumni Association
PARTNER: Brandeis National Committee
Watch the Trailer
Tuesday, May 7, 7:30 pm
Coolidge Corner Theatre
SCREENING COMPLETED
